Airbnb Climbs to a 52-Week High After a Q2 Beat and Higher Forecast

Airbnb shares jumped more than 14% in Friday afternoon trading, touching a 52-week high of $176.40, after the company reported second-quarter revenue and profit that beat Wall Street estimates and lifted its outlook for the rest of the year. The reaction was immediate. The stock had closed the prior session at $151.64.

Revenue up 17%, and a raised forecast

Revenue rose 17% from a year earlier to $3.6 billion, ahead of what analysts had expected. Gross booking value, the total guests spent through the platform, grew 16% to $27.2 billion, and nights and seats booked increased 10%. Net income came in at $816 million. Adjusted EBITDA reached $1.3 billion, up 21%, for a 35% margin. Adjusted earnings were $1.37 a share, above the $1.25 analysts had modeled, according to reporting on the results.

Management then raised its full-year view. Airbnb now expects revenue growth of at least the mid-teens in percentage terms, up from a low-to-mid-teens range, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 35.5%, up from 35%. For the current quarter it guided to revenue of $4.69 billion to $4.77 billion, a 15% to 17% increase from a year earlier.

New bookers and a faster-growing hotels business

The company said first-time bookers grew 11%, its fastest pace in four years, led by younger travelers. Its push into hotels is outpacing the core homes business, with hotel nights growing about three times faster. Executives also credited internal artificial-intelligence tools with speeding up product development. Those tools, the company said, cut the time from concept to launch by as much as 60% and lifted the number of features it shipped by nearly 80% from a year earlier. The gains, management argued, let a lean team ship more.

Analysts responded quickly. JPMorgan raised its price target to $170 from $140, Wells Fargo lifted its to $186, and Citizens moved to $190. Wedbush upgraded the stock to the equivalent of a buy.

A stock that had traded sideways

Before Friday, Airbnb had gone quiet. The shares spent the past three months mostly between $125 and $155, and Thursday’s close of $151.64 sat near the middle of that band. Friday’s advance carried the stock past its prior ceiling, and volume ran to about double recent daily levels. The 52-week range now stretches from $99.88 to Friday’s high.

The move landed on a strong day for stocks broadly. A softer-than-expected July jobs report eased worries about interest rates, and major indexes rose, with the S&P 500 heading toward one of its better weeks of the year. Even so, the size of Friday’s jump set Airbnb apart from the market’s more modest gains.

What to watch

The third-quarter guidance points to growth holding in the mid-teens, and the question from here is whether the two engines behind the quarter keep running. First-time-booker gains and the hotels expansion both accelerated; investors will look for that to continue rather than fade. Airbnb’s next quarterly report is due in the fall.

One caveat on the numbers above. Friday’s session was still open as this was written, so the intraday move and the $176.40 high are not the day’s final word, and the closing level could land higher or lower.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.